October072014

As of October 4, 2014, Iranian web and circumvention tool developer Saeed Malekpour has spent six years in prison for creating an open source software program that others used to upload pornographic images to the Internet. On the anniversary of his arrest, activists and bloggers ran a tweet storm to support his release under the hashtag #freeSaeed.

A permanent resident of Canada, Saeed returned to Iran in 2008 to visit his dying father when he was charged with threatening the nation's Islamic ideals and national security via propaganda against the system. Malekpour has testified that he did not know how his program and code had been used and developed by others, as it was distributed as open source code.

After a trial that reportedly lasted 15 minutes, Saeed was sentenced to death as a “corrupter of the earth.” In December of 2012, Saeed's death sentence was commuted from death to life in prison.

Having spent time in solitary confinement, Saeed gave what he later revealed to be a forced confession, drawn under torture and interrogations by the Revolutionary Guard. In the months following, Iranian state television repeatedly aired his “confession” to the alleged crimes.

Human rights lawyer Gissou Nia and spokesperson for the Campaign to Free Saeed described the broader implications of the case for programmers in Iran in an email to Global Voices:

The arrest and ongoing imprisonment of Saeed Malekpour shows that all Iranian freelance web programmers are vulnerable to potential legal trouble as they cannot know for certain which sites their codes have been used on. Should they face the misfortune of having a code they created used on a website deemed obscene by the Iranian authorities (and where the backend is being monitored by the IRGC) they can face adverse legal consequences.

[...]

In a sense, Saeed is the ‘sacrificial lamb’ of the IRGC's war on the online space. The Iranian Cyber Army was formed in 2008 and Saeed was arrested shortly after its creation, presumably to set a deterrent example for others.

Others close to the case believe the arrest is a result of a lack of knowledge regarding the culture and nature of software programming. Iranian blogger and computer engineer Arash Abadpour (known by the pen name Arash Kamangir) told Global Voices in an email, “Saeed's situation shows how arbitrary the system is. We have definitely seen this before, but his case is one of the most bitter ones. The bureaucracy and machinery of the system knows little about the technical aspects and is on high alert for conspiracy in every activity.”

Despite this generally upsetting trend, there have been some small victories. This past week the Narenji technology bloggers, arrested in November 2013 on unspecified charges, were released on bail.

While it is hard to gauge the impact that campaigns for the release of those imprisoned has on these arrests, many activists and analysts of Iran's legal system believe international pressure often has an impact on the release of those jailed.

Maryam Malekpour, Saeed's sister who resides in Canada, explained to Global Voices in a phone interview that Saeed has just been transferred to the general ward of Evin prison. He is allowed to make phone calls and have human contact for the first time since his arrest. She explained:

“He has been so alone, held in solitary confinement for so long, that he has a need to talk. To talk about anything, about our childhood, the past, what's going on now, and all I can do is talk to him, and try to give him hope that he will come out one day. I've been telling him about the campaigns for his release, and he cannot believe that people care and are talking about him. He's really grateful for all the efforts people are putting into his release..he's been sentenced to death. Both him and our family have been living with the spectre of his death for so long. All we want is a fair inquiry into his case. There is no incriminating evidence against him except for the forced confessions they took out of him.”

Gissou Nia stressed that Saeed's case should be put under independent investigation. “He has been severely tortured, has never received a fair trial, and has no access to his lawyer. For these reasons, there must be an independent inquiry into the handling of Saeed's case, and in the meantime he should be released on furlough while that investigation is pending.”

Iranians held several protest rallies in different cities including Tehran,Tabriz and Mehabad to support Kobane‘s people on Tuesday.Fighting continues to rage in the Syria-Turkey border town of Kobane Iran protest in solidarity with #Kobane
Photos: @NasimMohammadi_ pic.twitter.com/QHu1k1szxB — Negar Mortazavi (@NegarMortazavi) October 7, 2014 Written by Farid · comments (0)...

The European Union Court has lifted sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank, which had been imposed on a number of Iranian financial institutions and other companies, the Financial Times reported.The United States and European nations have imposed severe economic sanctions on Iran in recent years accusing it of using nuclear program as a coverage for making nuclear weapons. However, Iran has denied the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.The Court of Justice lifted the sanctions because of lack of evidence on banks involvement in the financing of any programs to develop nuclear weapons.

On 29 January 2013, the European General Court in Luxembourg ruled to annul the European Union sanctions in place since 2010 against Bank Mellat on grounds of supporting the Iranian nuclear and missile programs, stating that the basic rights of the bank had been denied and there was no evidence supporting the claim. Bank Mellat intends to sue for damages.

A related action in the British courts was taken to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in March 2013, causing the court to hold a closed hearing for the first time. In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the UK government’s sanctions on the bank had been unlawful. Bank Mellat intends to claim for £500 million of damages from the UK government for loss of business between 2009 and 2013.

September152014

Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran during WW II in Pictures

The invasion of Iran was the Allied invasion of the Kingdom of Iran during World War II, by Soviet, British and other Commonwealth armed forces. The invasion lasted from 25 August to 17 September 1941, and was codenamed Operation Countenance. The purpose was to secure Iranian oil fields and ensure Allied supply lines (see Persian Corridor) for the Soviets fighting against Axis forces on the Eastern Front. Though Iran was officially neutral, according to the Allies its monarch Reza Shah was friendly toward the Axis powers [*] and was deposed during the subsequent occupation and replaced with his young son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

September102014

Under recent changes to the Iranian government's already-stringent media regulatory regime, all online newspapers are now required to register with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance through a site called “e-rasaneh” (“e-newspaper” in Farsi), which falls under the jurisdiction of the nation's Press Supervisory Board.

Websites that cooperate with the new regulations will receive six-month subsidies from the Ministry, along with press passes for national events.

State news agency IRNA reported the news after a press conference with Deputy Minister Hossein Entezami in late August. Entezami asked Iran media industry leaders to cooperate with the new measures, “so the legal environment can fall in line with the nation's press.”

“All news and news sites have been notified that based on Article 18 of the press law, which is based on legal matter, they will now be responsible for providing the name and address of the owner, and the director of the media office [to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance],” he said.

Iran's Article 18 is part of the nation's Cyber Crimes Law, which criminalizes the use of telecommunications devices to “disseminate lies” within the state. The law prohibits of disturbing the public, the public's “state of mind”, and the state of mind of government authorities, all of which is at best vaguely defined in the text of the law.

Entezami noted that Iran's Internet boasts a large number of unlicensed news websites, and the Press Supervisory Board would soon begin to block them without discrimination. The Ministry has not yet defined exactly what constitutes a news website. However, Entezami did notify the press conference that Iranians would soon be able to report any news website lacking proper licensing through a online platform run by the supervisory board. Entezami also noted that websites cooperating can expect to receive their government-issued payments at the end of the Persian calendar month of Shahrivar.

This past week, dana.ir was one of the first websites Iranian users found to be blocked under the new legislation.

Dear user, Based on the article approved on November 2009 in Parliament (including the law on press, broadcasts and news sites) and by article 7, paragraph (a) on press laws, access to this website due to a lack of license from the Press Supervisory Committee is not possible. To view the licensed media (both in print and digital) visit press.Farhang.gov.ir. To apply for permission to host your website visit e-rasaneh.ir.

These new regulations, and posturing towards more filtering comes alongside President Hassan Rouhani's often liberal-minded statements against filtering and forced regulations. The tweet below, from the President's official account, quotes a televised speech he delivered this past Sunday:

If you set up #filter, somebody'll set up anti-filter. Nothing'll be resolved in this way – if it did, issues would've been resolved by now.